Ordinary Apart:Together Extraordinary
by XOGrace
Summary: There was more to his move than just the sadness of a best friend leaving. There was anger and regret, because they were never just friends, but always something more. But now he's back... and so are those stifled emotions of love and attraction. B&L.
1. Chapter 1:The Beginning

**Disclaimer- I don't own anything.**

**Author's Note: Hey! I'm Grace, 13 years old, and this is my very first story. Of course I figured that my first story would have to be about the first show I fell in love with… One Tree Hill. Seriously it is such an amazing show with such amazing characters. Anyways this is my first attempt so please review and let me know what you think**

**-Grace**

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We all have a past, the pictures that fill scrapbooks, the smiles that twinkle in memories, the dances that fleet across the sky. They are reminders that although every person comes from a different place, raised in their own unique way, somehow, some way, we come into each others lives, and forever, there we stay.

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[3 years earlier]

Soft and supple, the raindrops glide along the glass, leaving a reminiscent trace as they slip away. Her finger was like a magnet along the window, moving it along the droplets, predicting their path. And with one mindless flick, the raindrop slid from the protective glass and wavered before _crashing_ below

And just like that one drop, a tear reached from her eye until it cascaded quickly to the floor and _shattered_.

But she took no notice, focusing only the sign across the street, swinging in the threatening wind, bending the dreamless chains until they rattled together, the white wood standing firm in its place. However, it wasn't the structure that held her interest, nor the smiling lips painted on a brightening face. It was a sole word, breathing fire down her neck, burning her saddened green eyes. _Sold. _

He had promised he wouldn't leave her, not when they held hands on the bus in kindergarten and not when her parents divorced, sending her into a destructive whirlwind. He had stood with his arms outstretched, waiting for her to fall, waiting to rescue. He was the structure in her impromptu existence. And with every laughing gesture, each interloping of fingers, he promised her, he would always be there.

But here she was, staring into a lonely abyss with no hand by her side.

He was gone, the sign said that much.

But for all her sadness, the tears were not of sorrow, but of anger and regret, momentous hatred.

Shuffling quickly to her feet, sniffing back the tears, she wiped her face, desperately ridding herself of these emotions. The wooden blinds slammed along the windowsill as she pulled the string, turning from her reflection. And as she fled through the tunnel of mysterious regret and pushed aside the beckoning fear, Brooke fell along her bed, closing her eyes, expecting that in the morning, her best friend would be by her side, laughing it all away.

But when she awoke, it was just as dark as ever

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[Present Day]

"Making out with the toilet again Davis?" the voice violently shook her, reverberating her awake.

"Fuck," was the only word that her tongue could curl around, forcing it out like a bullet in a gun.

"Come on," the same voice summoned, only this time it was softer, friendlier.

But without a word, Brooke weakly raised her left arm, limply waiting for a hand to support it. "Thanks Peyton," she muttered, feeling her body being lifted from the cool tile.

"You are a mess," the blonde chuckled, supporting her friend, leading her from the bathroom. "You know, if you continue to party like this you won't be able to even remember high school."

"Thanks for the advice _mom_," Brooke smiled, feeling the pounding drum inside her temple.

"Anytime," she joked, allowing the brunette to curl up along her bed, grabbing tight to a pillow and resting her head.

* * *

And that routine provided structure, a consistency the Brooke thrived for. For no matter how much she drank, no matter what she put into her mouth, and no matter where she woke up, someone was always there to hoist her from the marble toilet and lead her away from the misery.

In the beginning her friends had accepted her partying was just her way to cope with Lucas moving. And had they had an _ordinary _friendship, the extent of her drinking wouldn't have been tolerated, but Lucas and Brooke were never just ordinary, nothing about their relationship was _common_.

But then her dad passed away and they just let her go. They figured drinking was her way of dealing with the pain because although she was not close with him after the divorce, at one point she had sat on his lap and kissed his cheek before bed. At one point they were tied with the same strings.

She never dealt with her dad's death, _seemingly_ never shedding even a tear. Of course her friends were well aware that there was only one person that would be able to comfort her and sway the thoughts in her chaotic head. But calling Lucas, bringing him back into the situation would just reopen the wounds that had been shut. And what's the point when he would just have to leave once again?

So eventually, somewhere down the line, her behavior was accepted, and no matter what, someone was there to pick her back up, but nobody was ever there to stop her from falling.

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"Was last night worth it?" Peyton asked as the two walked along the sidewalk later that day.

"I _think_ so," Brooke chuckled, her arms filled with shopping bags, "But it all goes blurry after the shots of tequila."

"Too bad that is all going to come to an end once school starts, that tequila is going to have to go back in the cabinet," Peyton said sarcastically, knowing that in a few short weeks, partying would be reserved only for the weekends once summer ended.

"Yeah and you're Jagielski flirting will have to wait for the hallways," Brooke smirked, forcing her friend's cheeks to turn a light shade of pink. "Details please."

"There are no details because there is nothing going on between us," she tried to convince.

"Oh really?"

"Yes, really Brooke."

"No dirty stories?" Brooke raised her eyebrow.

"I'm not _you_," Peyton laughed causing the brunette to join on in. "But I don't know. Jake's really sweet and hanging out with him is _almost_ as fun as hanging out with _you_, but I have my hands full."

"Hands full… with what?" Brooke smirked with a wink, "Because he looks like he'd be a handful."

"Brooke!" Peyton slapped jokingly on the shoulder.

"Sorry," she laughed.

"I need new friends."

"Sorry , nobody wants you," Brooke teased.

"Gee thanks."

"Anytime," Brooke smiled, "But seriously, it's summer, what do you have your hands full with?"

"Well other than picking your ass up off the floor on a daily basis," Peyton glared lightheartedly, "Some of us are thinking about college."

"Always the responsible one," Brooke laughed, shifting her purse along her shoulder.

"Have you been thinking about it? I mean we are seniors."

"Peyt," Brooke sighed as she shook her head.

"Fine," she muttered knowing that she wasn't going to get anywhere with that topic. "So what's going on in your love life?"

"Nothing," Brooke answered quickly, nonchalant, "I don't want to be tied down."

"You'd tell me if you were seeing someone right?" Peyton asked, weary of how fast Brooke had replied.

"I will call you during the sex," Brooke smiled causing Peyton to cringe.

"You can wait until after," she chuckled as the two continued walking, feeling the summer beat along their bare necks.

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It was late by the time Brooke eventually returned home, opening the red door to silence. But it was no surprise, the dead of quiet rushing to greet her presence. Her mom was never home, always out _working_, or whatever that entailed these days. She was never too sure.

However, Brooke never put too much thought into why her mom wasn't lounging on the couch with a magazine in hand, waiting for her daughter to return home. It was just accepted and she liked that. It gave her time alone.

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Her room was a whisper, a secret that breathed throughout the house that nobody knew of. The wind that blew from the open window gently caressed her, embracing her as she walked along the carpet.

And slowly she crept down along her knees, her fingers along the glass, tracing outlines, remembering smiles.

_"Dad,"_ she thought to herself, allowing the tear to slide from her face, falling onto the frame of the picture of her nestled along his lap. And slowly her eyes retreated outside, across the street, to the house, the wrap around porch that had held her growing body so many times, the creaks that had sounded as she raced up and down the steps, and the stain by the door where she had spilled her pink lemonade. Only by now, the porch had been repainted, the stain disappeared, and the creak was long gone.

And normally her eyes only rested along the memory for a moment, she had memorized the scene too many times before. But this time, there was something different about the yard, something she had seen before.

The same white frame and sign, gently swaying, and a different but still similar smile printed along a glowing face. And the four-letter word printed in bold red letters, _sold._

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**Author's Note-**

**Thank you all for reading and please review to let me know what you think. I know I am young but I hope that my grammar does not show that!! Everything will become clearer if I continue this! Also I am sure there are probably other stories of Lucas moving away and he and Brooke being best friends but I haven't read any so I hope that my beginning isn't too similar to any other stories!**

**-Grace **


	2. Chapter 2:Coming Home

**Disclaimer- I own nothing**

**Author's Note: Hey guys thank you so much for the review. They all mean a lot to me, especially since this is my first story. **

**Oh and I was SUCH a hard worker today and not only did I write this chapter, but I made youtube account & uploaded a little video for this story. haha. I saw some other author's had made them for their stories and I thought that was a good idea.**

**The link is in my profile!**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter**

**Also here is a note: Nathan & Lucas's relationship is the same as Season 1. The way they are related is the same, and so is the fact that Nathan very much resents Lucas.**

**-Grace**

**Oh & I wanted to mention that the title is based off a quote in Grey's Anatomy. **

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You can only fall for so long, eventually some sort of force is there to break your descent, some ground that breaks the barriers. And in a dream, it's the same thing. The black surrounds your frail body, squeezing bones until they snap under the pressure, and stealing breath until there is none left to release. But eventually, through the bad, your mind snaps you back.

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It was always the worst at night, the creak of hinges and slam of doors. A shatter of glass and the giggle of carelessness. The voice of a man sounding above it all, like nails on a chalkboard, making it all insufferable.

It's one thing to know why your mother's skirt is ripped up to her thigh and her lipstick is smeared along her secretive lips. But it is a different story to hear the squeal of her excitement and sigh of her sensuality. Always a new man, but never a new scenario.

Brooke lay awake in her bed, hearing it all through the thin walls, and whether they were doing _it_, really wasn't her concern. It was the fact that they were doing _something_, that her own mother would be so imprudent to fool around in her daughter's vicinity without a care in the world. But she shouldn't be surprised, it is not like her mom had even attempted to keep her affair concealed.

Maybe that is one of the reasons Brooke held her father so tight in her heart after his death, because if she didn't, who would? Friends? Estranged parents? Coworkers?

Life hadn't always been so _pathetic_. Before Lucas … and that is where she caught herself, with those four words. There are moments that define our lives, and we continually look back on them, seeing the events that lead towards them, and the ones that followed. They were defining. Before Lucas and After, where her moments.

But it's the middle, the between, that hurts the most. Yes, he moved, but that's not where the _before _begins. It more or less refers to the end of freshman year, 2 whole months before his boxes were taped up and shipped half way across the country. It's the time when his eyes didn't shine or when he no longer wanted to make her laugh. When they slowly resolved into different people. When she didn't feel she had the right to tell him when life couldn't get any worse. But there are reasons far too complicated to think about that led to those failing days.

And then there is the after, when his house was bare and haunting. When looking outside the window was just a vision of sun and clouds, not a friend waiting to visit.

But those 2 months, that time frame of having him and not embracing his strong figure, that's the middle and that is always the worst. Because that's the emotion of regret.

He never even told her goodbye. And for that sole reason, she cut off contact and buried herself within the whims of Tree Hill, desperately trying to rid herself of his nagging memory. That is why she didn't buy a plain ticket and follow his burning blue eyes. He just _left_.

That's when her and Peyton's friendship ignited, an impetus that set the inseparable pair off. They had always been close, but with Lucas, Brooke had never really needed anyone else, so all of her other friends were more accurately described as companions. Just company to her when she was lonely, rather than people she sulked to and fell asleep next to when the going got too tough.

But as much as Brooke would never verbally admit it, hell she could barely even voice it inside her head, the reason she sought Peyton, rather than Bevin or Theresa, was because she was the closest reminder of Lucas. The two were more similar than most siblings. It was like having a little bit of her best friend back… just in girl form.

Still, after three years, there were things she could not bring herself to talk to Peyton about. She had briefed the blonde about her mom, but never in an extent, and talking about her dad, that just didn't happen. And telling her that she was screwing her ex boyfriend was less likely to occur then the former two.

But being with Nathan was like killing two birds with one stone. She wasn't _supposed _to be holding his lips passionately along hers but the excitement that boiled in her stomach held the kiss longer than her breath wanted to allow. He was the R rated movie she wasn't supposed to see, or the alcohol she wasn't allowed to down. But Lucas also hated him; so peeling off the brunette's shirt is how she dealt with the anger of him just _ditching_ her.

But there was a voice, so small in the back of her mind, that whispered to her when Nathan stroked her cheek, and kissed her forehead, and the butterfly that caressed her stomach. Maybe there was more than just him being untouchable, or being the butt of anger. Maybe there was more.

"Hello?" she answered, nothing bothering to check the caller id, but smiling as the voice sounded on the other end.

"Hey, you still up?"

"No, Nathan I'm talking to you in my sleep," she rolled her eyes, "Of course I am awake," she laughed.

"Shut up Davis," he smiled on the other hand, "So if you're awake, and I'm awake…" he led on and she knew what was coming, but silently she waited. "Do you want to come over? Or I could come to your place?"

"I'll meet you at your house in a few minutes," Brooke told him and she could hear the sigh through the receiver, but she ignored it, resting her phone along the end table. She didn't have many rules, but the ones she had, she stuck by, and having sex in her bed was a no. But she never told Nathan why, in the middle of kissing in her room, they had to stop. And thankfully he always accepted her excuses, however stupid they might be.

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"You know, I am going to be in _excellent_ shape when basketball season rolls around," Nathan chuckled, lying shirtless in bed, his arm around Brooke who rested her head along his chest.

"When basketball season rolls around? Nathan it is always basketball season with you and your dad," she chuckled.

"Tell me about it," he muttered, "But hey guess whose parents are going out of town for a week!"

"They trust _you_ to stay home for 7 days without causing completely destruction to their beloved house?" Brooke asked amazed. After all, Nathan Scott was not exactly an angel.

"Who wouldn't trust me?" he asked with a straight face, causing Brooke to burst out into laughter.

"I am pretty sure the only person that _would_ trust you is a complete stranger that is high of his ass," Brooke replied.

"Hey, a stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet," he told her, trying to sound philosophical.

"What the hell?" she continued laughing as he joined in.

"You are just jealous of my way with words," he told her, his face beaming as he sat up, leaning his back along his headboard.

"I really am."

"Hey, so, want to hear something funny?" he asked after a minute.

"Sure," she responded with a soft smile.

"That girl Ashley, you know the one decorated her locker with pictures of herself, well she asked me out. On a date. Tomorrow," he said, waiting for Brooke to laugh, but she never did. Instead he just got a look of confusion.

"And?" she asked, waiting for some sort of joke.

"And she asked me on a date," he said again.

"Nathan, that's not a joke that's a statement," Brooke told him.

"I thought you would at least chuckle. I mean me and Ashley?"

"Does she smell bad?" Brooke asked, raising her eyebrows in confusion.

"No, what, why would you ask me that?"

"Why would you tell me a joke that would qualify as a fact! I am just trying to figure out why you are so appalled at her asking you to hang out," Brooke replied, raising her voice.

"Well not just hang out Brooke. I mean we'd have sex," Nathan told her.

"Dates sure are cheap now. They used to be dinner, a movie, and then sex. Now its right to the fun," Brooke smiled.

"I am going to slap you Davis," Nathan chuckled.

"And I am going to drive home if you don't use your words and tell me why this whole you and her going on a date and having sex is supposed to be funny."

"Well I guess it was never meant to be funny in a laugh until you cry kind of way, but more like an ironic funny. Because she is asking me to go on a date, which with her reputation means a few graham crackers and then sex, when me and you are exclusive," Nathan said honestly.

"Exclusive?" Brooke asked, and had she been eating something she was quite sure she would have died of choking right then and there.

"Yeah I thought that…"

"Nathan, how can we be exclusive, people don't even know we are _having_ sex," Brooke pointed out.

"But _I _know, and _you_ know," he told her. "I thought we were exclusive."

"Babe, nobody has exclusive sex unless there is a ring on the left finger, well hell, not even marriage is exclusive these days," Brooke told him, more harshly then she should have.

"Well do you want to consider just…" he began before she cut him off, grabbing her shirt from the floor.

"I got to go," she interrupted, because simply just being with Nathan and no other guys would be a commitment and once that happened, a relationship would ensue, and Peyton would find out. That could never happen. She shouldn't even be _doing_ her best friend's ex boyfriend.

Or maybe there was another reason she didn't want to tell Nathan that they were exclusive. Sure he was the only person she was having sex with, but confining herself to something exclusive was not going to happen for the two of them. Maybe the two were never supposed to be more than fuck buddies.

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Jake stood at the free throw line, the ball along his fingertips, as he squared up to the basket. The release was the best part, watching as the basketball floated over the horizon for just a moment, when the game momentarily stopped, and all eyes focused on the same thing. For a second, everything stood still.

And of course, it was the briefest point in time because soon after that, the world came crashing down at full speed as everyone began to battle for the objective.

But on the River Court he didn't compete with the sweating bodies of opponents, he just fought against himself, which is sometimes the hardest fight of all.

"Hey," Peyton smiled, closing the car door behind her as she walked towards the brunette, sweaty under the summer sun.

"Hey Peyt," he greeted, dropping the ball as he folded his arms around her.

"You smell," she muttered over his shoulder and he chuckled, releasing her small frame.

"You do too, like laundry detergent," he joked and she smacked him.

"Well you need some, your poor clothes are dying under that _stench_," she cringed her nose joking as he smiled.

"I am so glad to know somebody so sweet."

"Yeah, yeah. So what are you up to today?" she asked.

"I was thinking about shooting around for just a few more minutes and then maybe _showering_, and grabbing a bite to eat. How about you?"

"Hiding," she admitted.

"Brooke?" he asked, already knowing the answer, as he grabbed the ball again and effortlessly shot it through the hoop.

"Yes!" Peyton sighed. "She wants to go shopping _again_. I can only look at pink shirts for so long," she groaned.

"It begins to burn your eyes after looking for an extended time right?"

"I know you are being sarcastic but I am going to answer you anyways. Because yes. I mean seriously does somebody need that much? But of course it just doesn't end with the generalization of pink. No. She then goes to break it down into hot pink, periwinkle, salmon, magenta, rose, fuchsia…"

"Hey, you know I think only one of us should have to suffer through the shades of pink lesson," he laughed at her babble.

"If only it didn't have to be me."

"I don't know how Lucas managed for so long," he joked.

"He needs to move his ass back here and take her off my hands for just a day. He can wipe her mouth after she throws up her stomach and deal with her slaps when she begs for more alcohol after that," Peyton sighed, because as much as she loved her best friend, there were some things she did not like dealing with.

"You two going through a rough patch?" Jake asked concerned.

"No," Peyton shook her head. "I just want to be the one to let loose at a party and not have to watch over my shoulder to make sure she isn't passed out on the floor."

"You want to let loose?" Jake asked with a small chuckle. "Because Nathan's parents are going out of town for a week and I think that might be a perfect place for you to _let loose_ as you call it."

"I am done talking to you," she said, walking back towards her car.

"Hey, wait," Jake called after her. "I was just kidding."

"Nope, I have to go _shopping_. But let know more about Nathan's because at least at his house I can lock Brooke in a room and feel a little better that she is in someone familiar's house."

"You are such a great friend," Jake called to her as she turned around.

"I…" she began, stopping as a car drove past the River Court, slowing down, but not coming to a stop. Both she and Jake looked curiously, not saying a word as the car left their sight.

"Was that… Karen? Peyton asked and Jake nodded.

"Does that mean Lucas is?" Jake asked confused.

"Brooke!" Peyton groaned.

"Do you think she knows?" he questioned.

"If she did do you think I would be _here_ right now? I got to go," Peyton said quickly, and with that, she was gone.

Because if Lucas was here then there was a lot to be done.

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**Thank you all so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed. And please review, it would mean a lot to me!**

**-Grace**

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**Anonymous Review Thanks:**

**Christine**- Thank you so much for being my very first review! I am glad that you enjoyed the last chapter and everything :) I hope you liked this chapter!


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